Four-Pack · California Pinot Noir · Virtual Pop-Up Shop 2026
Fifty Shades of Pinot
Four California Pinot Noirs. Four completely different opinions about what Pinot Noir should be.
Pinot Noir is the most argumentative grape in the world. Every producer, every region and every vintage has a different theory about what it should taste like, and they are all at least partially right.
This pack takes four of California’s most interesting Pinot expressions — from the fog-drenched Anderson Valley to the legendary benchland vineyards of the Santa Lucia Highlands, from a single Russian River producer working at the top of their game to a single-vineyard bottling that demands your full attention — and lets them argue it out in your glass. There is no winner. There is only a very interesting evening and a much more nuanced understanding of why Pinot Noir producers never agree on anything.
The Bottles — Open in Order of Weight
Drew 2021 Pinot Noir Fog Eater
Anderson Valley · Pinot Noir · 2021 · Drew Family Cellars · Start here — lightest and most ethereal
The coolest, most haunting bottle in the pack — Anderson Valley at its most Burgundian.
Anderson Valley sits far enough inland to be warm, far enough toward the coast to be perpetually kissed by marine fog — which is exactly what Fog Eater is named for. Jason Drew farms his estate organically in one of California’s most underrated Pinot appellations, producing wines of striking transparency and cool-climate precision. The 2021 is pale, aromatic and almost unsettlingly elegant: red cherry, dried rose, forest floor and a minerality that makes you briefly wonder whether someone swapped your California Pinot for a premier cru Chambolle. Open this one first, before the others have a chance to recalibrate your palate.
Ramey 2019 Pinot Noir Russian River Valley
Russian River Valley · Pinot Noir · 2019 · Ramey Wine Cellars
The benchmark. Russian River doing exactly what Russian River does best.
David Ramey is one of California’s most respected winemakers, with a track record across multiple varieties that few producers can match. His Russian River Pinot draws from some of the appellation’s finest sites, and the 2019 vintage — warm but with excellent structure — gave him everything he needed to make something genuinely compelling. Ripe Bing cherry, vanilla, cola and warm spice with a silkiness that is quintessentially Russian River. The most immediately approachable bottle in the pack and the one that will disappear fastest. Pour it second, while the Fog Eater is still fresh in the memory. The contrast is instructive.
DiPalermo 2019 Mt. Carmel Pinot Noir
Sonoma Coast · Single Vineyard Pinot Noir · 2019 · DiPalermo Family Winery
The single-vineyard statement. Site over style, every time.
Mt. Carmel is a specific vineyard address on the extreme Sonoma Coast — cold, windswept, challenging to farm and entirely compelling in the glass. DiPalermo’s single-vineyard bottling is a wine of real specificity: you can taste the place in it, in the way that only genuinely great terroir allows. Darker and more structured than the Ramey, with black cherry, iron, dried herbs and a tension that demands time in the glass and rewards it generously. The most site-specific bottle in the pack and the most thought-provoking. Pair it with your most interesting dinner guest.
Talbott 2014 Sleepy Hollow Vineyard Pinot Noir
Santa Lucia Highlands · Single Vineyard Pinot Noir · 2014 · Talbott Vineyards · Finish here
The elder statesman. A legendary vineyard address with eleven years of bottle age behind it.
Sleepy Hollow is one of California’s most celebrated Pinot vineyards — a benchland site in the Santa Lucia Highlands that produces wine of extraordinary structure and longevity by California standards. Eleven years of bottle age has done exactly what time does to great Pinot: softened the tannins, deepened the complexity and revealed layers of dried cherry, forest floor, leather, sandalwood and warm spice that simply weren’t there on release. This is the bottle that closes the evening and closes the argument about whether California Pinot can age. It can. Save it for last. Let the others warm up the room.
What’s included
Drew 2021 Pinot Noir Fog Eater · Anderson Valley
Ramey 2019 Pinot Noir Russian River Valley
DiPalermo 2019 Mt. Carmel Pinot Noir · Sonoma Coast
Talbott 2014 Sleepy Hollow Vineyard Pinot Noir · Santa Lucia Highlands
Pick-up available Fri–Sun · Open in order for maximum effect · Decant the Talbott
Four regions. Four arguments. One grape tying them all together. The grape wins.